Operation KLONDIKE, the Clan military operation to re-conquer the Pentagon Worlds, began on 2 July 2821. Together with Clan Snow Raven, Clan Wolverine was assigned to Northern Circe, with both Clans fighting together to defeat the Sand Confederacy before starting to operate independently. While the Ravens fought the Empire of Hidalgo the Wolverines had several bloody clashes with a martial society called Rasmussen Elite, thug-like gangs of warriors with skills that matched the skill of the early Clan warriors, but with a lower quality of equipment and a fractured organization. Because of Rasmussen Elite warriors' prowess KhanSarah McEvedy ordered coordinated tactics in contrast to the one-on-one engagements preferred by Nicholas Kerensky who later outlined these preferences into the rules of Zellbrigen. In this the Wolverine behavior was close to the SLDF "total warfare" tactics.[2][3]

After the Rasmussen Elite was annihilated, Clan Wolverine and Clan Snow Raven fought together against the armed forces of Kerensky Dominion, when their previous ally turned their enemy after both clans used Kerensky Dominion warriors as cannon fodder instead of equal partners. The Battle of Bitter Tears, as the battle against Kerensky Dominion troops has been called, lasted three days, and left the Snow Raven ground forces in a somewhat ragged shape. Probably for this reason Khan McEvedy saw herself the senior officer at the final Northern Circe campaign — against the Davion-originated Isle of the Eagles — a fact that would only add to the later discord between the two Clans. Snow Raven ground forces suffered heavy losses in the campaign, even losing their saKhan in the fighting. The Snow Raven Khan even suspected that the Wolverines deliberately under-represented L'Isle des Aigles forces, souring relations between the two Clans even more.[2][3]

In June 2822, Khan Sarah McEvedy was called to task by ilKhan Kerensky for allowing her people the ability to migrate between castes, against his vision of Clan society. McEvedy had allowed some shifting to the Laborer caste to increase the food output of her Clan, and Clan Widowmaker (spying on Clan Wolverine without the ilKhan's approval) discovered this and reported it to the ilKhan. This would be the beginning of The Watch, the Clan intelligence service. It was a multi-Clan effort initially created to spy on Clan Wolverine, answerable to the ilKhan alone.

Nicholas Kerensky

The other Clans began to step up military activity against the Wolverines, and when McEvedy discovered that the ilKhan himself was spying on her clan, she tasked Star Colonel Franklin Hallis with developing a Wolverine intelligence service to ferret out the enemy spies and perform counter-intelligence. This would eventually rebound on her and be taken as further evidence of Clan Wolverine's disregard for Clan ways.

Further opposition began to solidify itself as the Wolverines completed development of several advanced 'Mech designs, and an improved ER PPC. Clans Wolf, Jade Falcon, Smoke Jaguar, Coyote, and Ghost Bear began to be more belligerent in sessions of the Grand Council. McEvedy quickly realized that her Clan was being singled out as a dangerous threat to the balance of Clan power.
[4]

In July 2823, a Brian Cache was discovered in the Tiki Province on Circe. Though technically in Wolverine territory, Clan Jade Falcon attempted to win the Cache in a Trial of Possession. They failed, but Jade Falcon Khan Lisa Buhallin brought the matter to the Grand Council in August 2823, issuing a formal protest. Due to the existence of nuclear weapons in the cache, the ilKhan determined that it would be treated as a council matter, and the Wolverines were initially allowed to complete the inventory of the Cache.

When the inventory was completed and presented to the ilKhan, he determined that no one Clan should have possession of the entire Cache, and that Trials of Possession would be necessary to fairly distribute the contents. McEvedy immediately requested a Trial of Refusal over the decision, which would be fought in October 2823 (and unfortunately lost) by her and her saKhan, Dwight Robertson (who was killed in the battle).

Sarah McEvedy

McEvedy then raised Star Colonel Franklin Hallis to the rank of saKhan, without a trial — another breach of Clan tradition. She then began the planning of Operation SWITCHBACK, an audacious plan to secede from the authority of the ilKhan and Grand Council and return to the Inner Sphere. While McEvedy attended the Grand Council, Hallis headed to the Norfolk Boneyard to liberate WarShips from the mothballed Exodus fleet. Another Wolverine team performed a similar mission in the San Diego Boneyard.

On 8 October 2823, McEvedy protested the results of the Trial of Refusal, claiming that the Grand Council was interfering in the internal affairs of Clan Wolverine. She then revealed the existence of The Watch and claimed that no fair trial was possible in the current climate, claiming (correctly) that as she was not asked to contribute to The Watch, that it was meant to work against the Wolverines. Realizing that nothing she could say or do would stop the inevitability of her Clan's destruction, she repudiated the ilKhan and left the Council chamber.

Two days later, McEvedy was back in the Council Chamber, this time with saKhan Hallis, though he would not be recognized by the ilKhan. As he did not win his position in a trial, he was removed from the Chamber. As the Council took up the Brian Cache matter again, McEvedy refused to take part, denouncing the ilKhan's actions and refusing to give up the Cache without a fight.

As a last resort, McEvedy met privately with the ilKhan the next day, 10 October 2823, onboard McKenna's Pride. While the ilKhan complimented her on the strength of her Clan, he expressed disappointment over the attempts to liberalize and change his vision. He made it clear that the Wolverines would be destroyed by the other Clans as an object lesson. McEvedy made several offers to avoid that outcome, but the ilKhan was adamant.[5]

McEvedy would return to the Grand Council a final time on 11 October 2823, shortly after Wolverine forces defeated a multi-Clan force at the Brian Cache on Circe. She attempted to sway the Grand Council by revealing the ilKhan's plans, to no avail. She then renounced her position in Council, announced her intention to secede from the Clans, insulted the ilKhan and Council, and threatened any who would attack the Wolverines.[6] The Khan of Clan Smoke Jaguar called for a Trial of Absorption as McEvedy left the chamber for the last time. Operation SWITCHBACK, Clan Wolverine's last hope, had begun.

The Wolverines allowed any and all clan members to remain behind if they wished to do so, then performed "scorched earth" withdrawals from their enclaves on Lum and Circe. Unbeknownst to Clan Wolverine, Clan Widowmaker operatives had stolen one of the nuclear devices from the Brian Cache, and prepared it for detonation in their capital city of Great Hope. Khan Jason Karrige then activated the device when he, the ilKhan, and Clan Widowmaker forces approached the city.

Jason Karrige

As Karrige had hoped and planned for, the blame fell on the shoulders of the Wolverines. The ilKhan commanded Clan Snow Raven to take the battle to the Wolverines on Circe as he planned the ultimate punishment: the Trial of Annihilation. Clan Snow Raven's attempt to use a nuclear weapon on the remaining Wolverine forces backfired horribly when the nuclear-equipped aerospace fighter was shot down by the Bismark, a mothballed WarShip reclaimed by Wolverine saKhan Franklin Hallis. The activated nuclear weapon detonated in an airburst over the Snow Raven's capital of Dehra Dun. This too would be blamed on Clan Wolverine.

The Wolverine forces on Strana Mechty were hard pressed until Hallis commandeered McKenna's Pride and performed an orbital bombardment on their enemies. He then proceeded to bombard the Clan halls of Widowmaker, Smoke Jaguar, Ghost Bear, Snow Raven, and Jade Falcon, as well as the Grand Council hall itself. With McEvedy thought lost in the destruction of Great Hope, Hallis was now in command of the remaining Wolverine units.[7]

On 25 October 2823, ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky addressed every member of the Clans, announcing the unprecendented Trial of Annihilation against Clan Wolverine, detailing their many crimes against the Clans. All Clan Wolverine Warriors would be killed; all other Clan Wolverine castes would be chemically sterilized and absorbed into other Clans. No quarter would be given. The other Clans were ordered to assemble a Grand Fleet to find and destroy the remaining Wolverines before they could return to the Inner Sphere.

Meanwhile, Khan Franklin Hallis was leading the Wolverines from the SLS Michigan, the Clan Wolverine flagship. He had split the Wolverine fleet in an attempt to increase their chances of survival, the other group led by saKhan Trish Ebon. Operation Switchback was well under way; the Wolverines would attempt to hang back and allow the Clan fleet to overshoot them and hopefully miss them completely. Unfortunately, things would not play out in this manner.

The Clan fleet discovered Hallis' group of Wolverines on 27 June 2824, on a planet codenamed "Barbados", where they had grounded in need of supplies. Ebon's group was out of position and hampered by jump drive failure, and so the naval battle was quite one-sided. Several ships did manage to escape, but on July 7 2824, the Clans bid for the final ground battle.

The outcome was a foregone conclusion, but the treachery of Widowmaker Khan Jason Karrige was revealed by the ilKhan, and Franklin Hallis received the justice of slaying him before he was defeated by Star ColonelFerris Ward. The rest of the Wolverine forces present were destroyed. However, the second group under saKhan Ebon survived, met up with several other Wolverine units, and fled Clan space. [8]

The ilKhan would heavily alter Clan history regarding these incidents. Karrige's perfidy would be washed away (though his genes would be removed from the breeding program), the accidental nuking of Dehra Dun would be forever blamed on the Wolverines. Any reference to the Wolverines would be as the "Not-Named Clan". Nicholas's diaries, however, would remain uncensored and available to the Clan Wolf, which would later provide Phelan Kell with a more balanced view than available through traditional Clan sources.

Ironically, Nicholas Kerensky would later utilize some of McEvedy's caste reforms to allow limited testing and movement between the castes. Though several Absorptions would occur in Clan history, a true Trial of Annihilation against an entire Clan would not be seen again until the Wars of Reaving (though one might consider Clan Smoke Jaguar's fate to be akin to Annihilation). [8]

On 22 January 2824, the Wolf Loremaster presented a census of the Wolverines' population and equipment to the Grand Council. Most of the Wolverine front line troops were accounted for, but many of the second-line warriors and civilians seemed to be missing, along with the majority of the equipment from the disputed Brian Cache. Operation SWITCHBACK, while not completely successful, did allow military forces and civilians under saKhan Trish Ebon to escape Clan space. How many escaped, and their final disposition, is not known. [9]

Inter-Clan rivalry would also play a part in allowing some of the Wolverines to escape. Aggrieved that that Clan Ghost Bear had been denied the honor of Annihilating them, when a small detachment of Wolverines attempted to take supplies from a hidden stockpile on one of Arcadia's small moons, a Ghost Bear patrol commanded by Star Captain Amon refused to raise the alarm and allowed them to escape untouched, the bitter Amon citing that as the Wolves had been given the honor of defeating them that it was not up to Bears to help them in this task. Amon made a deathbed confession of these events years later, triggering an outraged response from the Wolves and leading to an intense and everlasting grudge between both Clans. Viewing the shame of Amon's decision as a stain upon the honor of every member of their Clan, from that point on every Ghost Bear warrior swears an solemn oath that they hunt down any descendants of the Not-Named Clan that may surface, neglecting all other concerns until the task is finished. [10][11]